The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Substrate processing systems may be used to perform etching, deposition, cleaning, and/or other treatment of substrates such as semiconductor wafers. Example processes that may be performed on a substrate include, but are not limited to, a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process, a chemically enhanced plasma vapor deposition (CEPVD) process, a sputtering physical vapor deposition (PVD) process, an ion implantation process, and/or other etch (e.g., chemical etch, plasma etch, reactive ion etch, etc.), deposition, and cleaning processes. A substrate may be arranged on a substrate support, such as a pedestal in a processing chamber of the substrate processing system. For example only, during deposition, a gas mixture including one or more precursors is introduced into the processing chamber and plasma is struck to deposit films on the substrate.
Some pedestals (e.g., including, but not limited to, pedestals used in PECVD and ALD substrate processing systems) may include one or more components that may be removed during maintenance of the substrate processing system. These components may include minimum contact area (MCA) balls or bearings, MCA pins, and/or lift pins. In some examples, an MCA bearing and a corresponding MCA pin are arranged in respective holes in a surface of the pedestal. A first end of the MCA pin is supported by the MCA bearing inside the hole and a second end of the MCA pin extends from the hole. In other examples, only MCA pins are arranged in the respective holes. The substrate is supported on the pedestal by the second ends of the MCA pins. The lift pins are arranged in the pedestal and are configured to be selectively lifted and/or retracted to lift the substrate off of the pedestal (i.e., off of the MCA pins) and to lower the substrate onto the pedestal.